Cocktail Chronicles
An excellent blog by a man who has more cocktail books than I thought were published.

cocktailnerd
Gabriel has crafted a fine site and shares some of my pain with a state-run liquor system. He also manages to post about 4000 times more than me, and it’s always interesting!

Dave’s Drinks
Anyone who posts about exotic cocktails makes it on this blogroll!

Days That End In “Y”
An all-around drinking blog that posts quality news on the world of spirits, beer, wine, gadgets… the list goes on, as do the posts, which are too numerous to count. “Updated frequently” would be an understatement.

Dr. Bamboo
A fellow Pennsylvanian with a penchant for art and fine cocktails.

Favorite Posts

I never gave the Old Waldorf-Astoria more than a glance after it came with a shipment of other cocktail and cook books nearly a year ago. Boy what a mistake that was. I dug it out the other day, remembering it included more than a handful of gin-laden cocktails. To my surprise, every drink I’ve crafted from the book has been delicious.

I started off with a cocktail named the Creole. It’s amber surface is spun into a glistening star courtesy of the absinthe, but it doesn’t stick around long enough to admire.

Creole

3 dashes orange bitters (good with both Regan’s and Fees)

1 1/2oz absinthe (used Henri Bardouin)

1 1/2oz sweet vermouth (used Vya)

Stir with crushed ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book, A. S. Crockett

The simple balance of just three ingredients is astonishing. The licorice punch of the absinthe is muted slightly by the richness of vermouth, and the orange bitters provide an extra touch of welcomed complexity. A fine drink, and one that goes down a bit too easily if you ask me.

Here a couple of other receipts that I’ve enjoyed from the Waldorf:

Emerson

1oz lime juice

1t maraschino liqueur (used Luxardo)

1oz sweet vermouth (used Vya)

1oz Tom gin (used Plymouth with a couple drops of simple syrup)

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book, A. S. Crockett

Fanciulli

3/4oz Fernet Branca

3/4oz sweet vermouth

1 1/2oz whiskey (used Bulleit Bourbon)

Stir with crushed ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book, A. S. Crockett

KP Questions

What are your favorite recipes from the Waldorf guide?

For those of us who are stuck in states where absinthe won’t be available until 2050 (or those that can’t shell out for shipping overseas), what substitutes are your favorite?

As for absinthe substitutes, we used Herbsaint and Pernod about equally, depending on the recipe, before we got our hands on the real stuff. I bought our bottle of Lucid mail order (with free shipping, as I recall) from http://www.drinkupny.com. Not sure what the legalities are of shipping it to you, as I’m not entirely sure precisely where the Penguinstad is located… Blackwell’s here in our fair City has been known to ship bottles for me to family and friends; they should have the St. George absinthe back in stock toward the end of the month. Contact info at http://blackwellswines.com/ (if you call, ask for Gary and tell him Cameron and I sent you.)

I find that the Ricard avoids a measure of the cloying sweetness of Pernod, although it is still sweet. It also has a little more thyme or other shrub-like flavors than Pernod or Herbsaint.

From a cooking perspective, I find that Ricard is the best anisette to go with garlic –I’ve a salad dressing that takes a healthy shot of Ricard into some olive oil in which chopped garlic has been sauteed. It’s nice over a salad with avocados.